Goulet wins prestigious percussion scholarship

Chris Goulet
Chris Goulet

Glenn Korff School of Music Bachelor of Music in Percussion Performance student Chris Goulet received quite an honor that was announced recently at PASIC (the Percussive Arts Society International Convention) in Indianapolis.

Goulet won the prestigious Armand Zildjian Percussion Scholarship -- a $2,000 award that goes directly to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to offset his tuition. It’s awarded to one university student in the country each year. Goulet won this competitive award by submitting videos of his orchestral percussion playing.

“This is the first time a percussion student at Nebraska has won this award, and I am so proud of Chris for all his efforts to earn this award!”, said Associate Professor of Percussion, Jazz Studies Dave Hall.

Goulet’s submission included Six Little Piano Pieces by Arnold Schoenberg, which Goulet arranged for marimba; Umi by Akiho, and A Cool Gadget by Casey Cangelosi. All three of these pieces were on his junior recital, and he submitted segments from his recordings of each piece that he did at the end of the spring semester.

Watch his submission video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyKBSjji77gd

“Winning the Percussive Arts Society Armand Zildjian scholarship is a great honor to me,” Goulet said. “Percussive Arts Society scholarships are highly competitive, and I feel very grateful to have been selected. “

Goulet is one of the first students in Westbrook Music Building, the home of the Glenn Korff School of Music, each morning to begin practicing.

“Each morning I go and practice from about 7 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., with an occasional additional hour or two in the afternoon, if I’m feeling up to it,” Goulet said. “I tend to keep a pretty similar schedule on the weekends.

“I have been dealing with tendinitis and wrist issues ever since I marched DCI, so I had to drastically cut back on my overall practice time and am just recently getting to start ramping it back up as my condition improves. This has forced me to become far more efficient with my practicing and spend almost as much time mentally practicing as standing behind an instrument playing.”

As a charter member of the Percussive Arts Society and a 16-year Trustee of Berklee College, Armand Zildjian sought to create more learning opportunities for today’s musicians in both contemporary and classical music. The PAS Armand Zildjian Percussion Scholarship is one step in fulfilling that quest.

Armand Zildjian’s introduction into the world of music came at a very early age. Born into the Zildjian family with a 350-year-old tradition of cymbal craftsmanship, it was always understood that Armand would follow his father Avedis into the family business. For Armand, it was an honor to match cymbals for the great symphonies and to collaborate with the greatest drummers of the day to develop the new cymbal sounds musicians were looking for. In receiving his honorary Doctorate from Berklee College of Music in 1988, Armand told the Berklee students how very fortunate they were to have the opportunity to study contemporary music. “In my day”, said Armand, “the classroom was primarily the nightclubs where all the great musicians learned from each other.”

Goulet, who will graduate in May from UNL, added, “I hope that winning this scholarship will be an accomplishment that I can look back on in the future and be proud. As I previously said, these scholarships are very competitive, so I hope that having this award to my name will help me in my future endeavors.”

--Brian G. Reetz, Glenn Korff School of Music